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Christmas break has been a blast!! We've had so many fun memories.
I always send out Christmas cards, and I sure love this tradition and getting a picture taken each year.
The Sunday before we got to listen to Ragnar play the cello in church the first weekend.
The kids got all dressed up in their cute Sunday Christmas clothes.
My handsome boys!
The girls looked adorable in their matching dresses.
After church the kids asked if we could take some special treats to some friends/families. If they want to be kind and serve others I am happy to oblige.. I just wasn't super prepared.
The kids made pretzels with hersey kisses and m&m's together, and I made some different types of cookies and rice krispy treats and Ragnar dipped pretzel sticks. Since it was Sunday and I wasn't prepared to do treats, I didn't even have Christmas plates, so hopefully our friends forgave us as we delivered them on flower plates ;) The kids wanted to serve, so it's the thought that counts I hope!
Tuesday we met my brother and his kids and headed to the Aerodrome to ice skate!
Chris kindly watched the three younger kids while the older 5 ice skated with Chira and I!
They all did pretty well. I skated mostly with Channing who was happy to be there. Cavin decided he wanted to be a hockey player and checked himself into the wall and gave himself a busted lip. What would anything be if Cavin didn't have something on his body to remember it by! He patched up quickly and got back to skate. He and Ella mostly hugged the side, but had fun.
Afterward I had to go to Costco to get some things for Christmas dinner, so we all went and enjoyed a slice of pizza!
In true Hartzheim fashion, all 4 kids fell asleep on the way home! Ice skating wore them out!
On December 23rd, Ragnar's sister Daphne joined us to celebrate the Christmas holidays. We were so glad that she could come. The kids wanted to make her a special sign to make her feel welcome.
Daphne is such an awesome Aunt to the kids. She has to endure her little "side-kick" Channing constantly asking her what she is doing.
On Christmas eve we went to my brother Chris' house and had a nice dinner. After dinner the kids put on a puppet show of the nativity and we went to go see Christmas lights in Preston village which we do most years. It was a fun night.
Christmas morning came and the kids were so excited to finally have it here!
They have to wait for a special "Mannheim Steamroller" song to play to come down. When they came down they headed straight for the tree. Our friends gave us this "pickle" ornament that if you find you get to open the first present.
Ella found it this year!
Let's get this party started!
Ella started with her gift from Santa.
A giant beanie boo...she sure loves those things!
Deacon was just happy to be there. He got a ball. His favorite!
Maybe he will stop trying to take his brother's at soccer practice!
Channing's big reveal!
A barbie doll house!!
She just kept staring and saying wow! (I got a steal of a deal on it!)
The beloved kindle that she's been wanting!
And he sure wanted the Salamance pokemon pack.
Happiness!
Channing just stayed and played as we opened.
We each do a picture of our favorite thing in front of the tree each year. Cavin really wanted a green alarm clock, Ragnar got fancy Rocket's shoes, I got a blog book printed (and that cool vaccum to the right), Deacon a soccer ball, Channing got an Anna and Elsa doll cause the dollhouse was too big to bring over, and Ella a kindle.
Cute, happy kiddos!
Our Christmas family!
Daphne was a great photographer, but that also meant she got out of a lot of the pictures!
Daphne got us a cup stacking game which we had fun playing!
Daphne also got Channing some makeup and Daphne was happy to let her try it on her ;)
Doesn't the pink eye shadow looks fabulous!
She's such a great Aunt, she is happily playing along with her side kick!
Grandpa came over to hang out with us on Christmas while my mom is helping my sister who had twins. As you can tell Deacon loves his grandpa!
Grandpa's always making him laugh!!
Grandpa and Natalie who both love Christmas.
My brother Chris and his cute family also came to celebrate and spend the day. Aren't they such a cute family!
All of the cousins had a great time! We are sure glad they live close now and I enjoyed their company as Ragnar went to work the Rockets game and Daphne went to attend!
We had a Super Mario brothers wii night where we HAD to complete this level! It ended up taking the whole family to finish the level, but there was much excitement when we did it!
On Saturday before Daphne left we went to Red Robin and IKEA. We had a great lunch and spent a fair amount of time in IKEA, but we got some fun shelves that Daphne graciously helped Ragnar build when we got home! It was nice to have Daphne come and I am so glad that she was willing and lives close enough to be a bigger part of our lives. We had a wonderful Merry Christmas!
One of my very favorite Christmas parties of the year is the Ugly Sweater Party that my friend Emily and her Husband Brad Miller throw every year. I really look forward to finding an outfit and having a great time! In Texas it's so hot, that often times our "sweaters" turn into funny or ugly t-shirts.
Here is God's gift to women..aka Ragnar ;)
And since Ragnar's was a little far fetched, it was only fitting that I matched. "Trophy Wife" I wore these pants the second year and they have been worn by someone each year. This year they had to go with my gold trophy shirt ;)
Aren't we an adorable couple! Ragnar totally won with his shirt! It was pretty funny!
Here is the rest of the crew. We had a great time with our scavenger hunt and other fun games! So glad to have some fun friends!
In August I had this idea that it might be beneficial to our community and for Ragnar and I to do a biggest loser competition in our community. I brought the idea to the board and they had already done the budget for the year, but were happy to let me host it and use their facility. So on September 15th we started the 90 day competition. We had 51 participants and each person put in $20 to participate. The money then at the end of the competition was given to the first, second, and third place winners. The competition was quite a bit of work for me, but it really helped me get going on losing the last few pounds and helped Ragnar start again.
We had a weigh in every month and at the end we had a party to celebrate. As you can see from this picture...the end celebration was a flop! It was the week before Christmas and hardly anyone was able to make it.
I made medals to commemorate the first Biggest Loser Eagle Springs Edition winner. This was Kevin Alner who won losing 52 pounds. He lost 15.4% of his weight.
Here was our so so close second, Roy Castillo who lost 44 pounds and 15.2% of his body weight.
Our third place winner weighed in and couldn't stay. Courtney Leigh lost 12% of her body weight and did awesome.
After all the work, I'm glad I did it. I lost 10 pounds and Ragnar 15, so it was a start in the right direction and we hopefully helped others in the process.
Ella was busy this month! She had something almost every day the last week of school. It was fun to see her excel and have fun in all she did! She started with a spelling bee!
She was chosen out of 34 kids from her school to participate in the spelling bee. She was pretty excited!
Her first word was "Patch". She made it through the first round and I was so grateful she could make it at least to the 2nd round!
In the end she made it 5 rounds with only 11 people left. Her next four words were Hubbub, Genteel, Nurture, and the word that took her out was Anorak. I was so proud of her! She did wonderful!
The next thing she had that week was a few choir performances.
First she sang at Barnes and Noble bookstore with her choir as a fundraiser. They did a really cute job!
Deacon started off clapping and loving the songs, and then he started covering his ears! Haha I think we knew when he was finished!
Next they had a sing a long at their school for the kids there. Here is Ella and her friend Cicialy.
Lastly we ended the week on a mother daughter date to her dance recital! We got ice cream before and she did a great job dancing! This is the only picture I had because she was a bit emotional at the end when we had a miscommunication about when to pick her up. Still I enjoyed our time together! I am so excited in the girl she is becoming!
Since I moved back to Texas from college in Utah, my mom, sister Natalie, and I have gone to the Houston Ballets Nutcracker performance. When Ella was 3.5 she came with us for the first time and then last year Channing started to join us at the same age. It has been a tradition that my girls have really looked forward to. This year Channing's preschool class was going on a fieldtrip downtown to see it, and we were lucky enough to get enough tickets to make it a family trip in one! We attended a student performance, where all the audience was students, but they had the actual professional dancers performing. We had amazing box seats and the tickets were much much cheaper. It was wonderful!
Channing's class has 6 cute girls in it. She loves Miss Lindsay and going to school with these girls.
Me and the girls!
The three adorable Houston Girl cousins.
It was windy, but a nice warm winter day.
My sister Natalie and sister in law Chira
That gingerbread house would take an amazingly large oven to make!
Here we all are. Such a fun girl outing. Afterward we went to the Hard Rock Cafe across the street and had lunch. It was a great day.
Several months ago my sister in law Daphne told me that she had some co-workers running in the Baton Rouge beach half marathon and that she was thinking of training and running. We have both had a rough year with injuries, so we trained to see how our bodies would hold up and then a month before registered to run. I have to say, I really was hoping I could do it. After having to miss the Woodlands half marathon in February after having injured my hamstring, I desperately needed the mental and physical comeback. I have always loved running and for 20 years have never been really injured, so the hamstring injury has really been weighing on me. Physically it has been brutal to go from the fastest training I have done in years to not being able to walk or run down the end of my street. I had to take it literally a quarter of a mile at a time. It was so frustrating. Mentally it has even been worse. Running has always been my outlet and been something I needed for myself to feel at peace. I really had to try and re-find myself during the 9-10 month recovery. I tore my hamstring on February 20th, and on December 5th I finally made a leap toward a comeback.
My family joined me on the 4 hour drive to Louisiana and we stayed with my sister in law Daphne who was kind enough to let us all take over her apartment. Friday we played at a beach volleyball pit that Cavin was in love with, and we picked up our race packets and watched a family movie. I was pretty nervous the morning of the race that my leg wouldn't be strong enough to finish. It was pretty cold, but it ended up being a great run. It was beautiful scenery and it was great to have Daphne by my side! My leg was sore, but I definitely felt fine. We finished and I am so glad to have that race behind me!
Here we are finishing together!
We did it! The injuries didn't take us down!
I was glad to have my family there supporting me and cheering me on!
Beach selfie!
It really was so pretty running around the water and LSU campus. So many beautiful old trees!
This cutie was happy to be outside!
After the race we went to have gumbo at her co-workers house and then headed to the Baton Rouge Zoo. It was perfect weather outside. What made it even better is we practically had the whole place to ourselves!
Family picture by the otters!
I love how everything was so exciting to Deacon!
The zoo lights were turning on as we were leaving!
Ella sure loves her Aunt Daphne.
After the zoo we had a yummy meal at Mooyahs burgers.
Daphne read the kids a great Christmas book before bed!
On Sunday we went to Daphne church which happens to be the same parking lot as the Baton Rouge temple.
Ragnar and his little sis!
Daphne with her nieces and nephews who adore her!
I am glad we have each other forever! It was a great weekend!
